


When the Earth Does Shake

by Tabithian



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU - Comicverse, Nightwing (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-07
Updated: 2012-10-07
Packaged: 2017-11-15 19:02:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/530628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabithian/pseuds/Tabithian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As far as the end of the world thing goes, Jason wasn't really expecting it to go this way. (No one was, really.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Earth Does Shake

**Author's Note:**

> lunatehnox asked for the Robins and apocalypse. *hands*

As far as the end of the world thing goes, Jason wasn't really expecting it to go this way. (No one was, really.)

He thinks apocalypse, things like nuclear war pop into his head. Alien invasion. Natural disasters. Unstoppable virus. Zombies. Not. 

Not a goddamned rumble between rival magic users, so of course that's what happened and of course they decided it had to start in Gotham because she draws the crazies like no one's business.

And now there are dragons and gryphons roosting on Gotham's rooftops, duking it out over prime nesting grounds. (Bruce probably doesn't even know about any of this yet, off-planet with the League and goddamn is he going to be in for a surprise when he gets back.) 

“I don't want to know what you're laughing about, do I?”

Jason opens his eyes and sees Dick standing a few feet away, eyebrow raised. He looks about as good as Jason feels, which is like shit. 

“Fuck off, Dick.”

Dick is Dick though, so he doesn't listen. “You've got a supply run with Tim.”

Oh, hell. “Tell him to take the brat.” 

Dick won't let them leave their little camp – more of a bunker – alone. It makes them targets for the desperate fuckers out there who don't have the common sense to seek out the better organized camps, or were kicked out for being desperate fuckers. That, and the dragons and gryphons are more likely to go after solitary prey, and it takes at least two to take down a troll.

That gets an actual laugh out of Dick. “You remember what happened the last time we did that?”

He does, actually. And maybe if he was a better person he'd feel bad about it, but. “Survival of the fittest, Dickiebird,” he singsongs.

Dick aims a kick at him. “ _Jay_.”

********

“Well this is just fucking great.”

Tim sighs, like maybe the end of the world is slightly less annoying than Jason's bitching, which. Kid's got fucked up priorities. (Shocker, that one.)

“We can fix this,” Tim says, because somehow he's the ray of sunshine out of their merry little band of misfits and outcasts. And cats.

Fucking seriously, _cats_. 

If it's not Damian sneaking scraggly kittens into camp tucked into the hood of his suit, it's Tim fishing strays out from under abandoned cars and crumbling buildings.

“Really?” Jason is still the asshole out of them, though, it's a gift. “You have a magic wand somewhere, Replacement?”

That would be great, really. The air stinks of magic, thick and foul and this is _Gotham_. She's not known for things like fresh air. Everyone can sense it now, and there's no denying its existence even for the stubbornest skeptics. 

Tim scratches the ears of the cat crouched next to him, a big orange and white tabby with the creepiest eyes Jason's ever seen on a cat. They're _red_.

“Something like that.”

Jason sighs, scowling at the cat – he swears it's smirking at him. “It's not getting my rations.”

Tim smiles. “Noted.”

********

Selina thinks it's hilarious, of course, that Tim and Damian keep bringing back strays. And maybe if they didn't earn their keep by controlling the rat population, Jason would have a legitimate reason to bitch about them.

“Looks like someone made a friend.”

Jason scowls at Selina, watching the little ball of fuzz stalking his bootlaces. “He's gryphon bait.” 

Selina just looks at him. “Yes. Keep telling yourself that.”

_Goddammit._

********

Did Jason mention the dragons? Because there are dragons. Big damn dragons that breath fire and eat people – Jason's not going to forget seeing that anytime soon – and now Tim is making nice with a baby dragon.

This. Things like this, like Teekl leading Tim to an abandoned dragons' nest and letting the tiny black dragon curled up in the remains sink its metaphorical claws into Tim's heart are why Jason hates everything even more now.

“There's no way this will end well,” he says, watching Tim feed it a rat one of the cats caught. 

Beside him Dick is all-over baffled and worried and _Dick_. “It's a baby.”

A baby dragon, that will one day grow up to be an adult dragon that eats people and Jesus, is he the only one who sees a problem here? 

“Relax, Timon,” Dick says, and just. 

“I hope it eats your face.”

********

“I do not approve of Drake's 'pet'.”

Jason looks over at Damian, who has at least three kittens on his person. Jason can see a pair of small eyes either side of Damian's face, furry bodies hidden by his hood, and one of the pouches on his utility belt is _moving_.

“Pot, kettle, demon brat.” 

They both turn at Dick's startled yelp and see the baby dragon Tim adopted in a protective stance between Tim and Dick. It's hissing at him, wings mantled, wisps of smoke escaping around its fangs. 

Tim looks a mix between amused and exasperated. “Dick,” he says, crouching next to the dragon, running a hand down its back. “We talked about this. Surprise hug attacks are a bad idea.”

Jason looks back at Damian in time to see the considering look on his face. “Don't even think about it, brat. You survive getting a baby dragon of your own, it's going to eat your little buddies.”

Damian's eyes narrow, one hand going to the kitten-pouch on his belt. “I would like to see it try.”

Why is this his life? “No, demon brat. One really bad decision is enough for us right now, I think.” 

God knows there's going to more of them in the future.

********

It would have been nice of Tim to mention that Teekl is the familiar of a powerful magic user, and that hey, said magic user was part of the group that started the end of the world. (Maybe not the end of the world so much as a really shitty _Dungeons & Dragons/Mad Max_ fusion, and Jesus, what even.)

“What, you thought she was a normal cat?” Tim asks, pushing Jason behind him when Teekl turns her head in their direction.

“I don't know what's normal anymore,” Jason says, and it's one of the truest things he's said in a long time.

“Join the club,” Tim says, edging closer to Teekl, who is roughly the size of a damn tiger, all fur and fangs and claws and angry growling. She has feathers in her mouth and blood on her fur from the gryphon stupid enough to think she looked like easy pickings. (So much for an incident free supply run.)

Tim's dragon is curled around Jason's shoulders, head on a level with Jason's as they watch Tim talk Teekl down, voice pitched low and soothing. 

Jason half expects her to go for Tim's throat, but she just watches him, those unnerving red eyes of hers focused on him and bit by bit she calms down, the raw animal sound of her growls tapering off to nothing. Her fur smooths down and she she dwindles in size until she looks back to the not-quite-right cat Jason's gotten used to trailing Tim around the bunker.

Tim gathers Teekl in his arms and walks back to Jason. 

“So when you said we can fix this - “

“Maybe,” Tim says, scratching under Teekl's chin. “I was hoping Klarion would come looking for her before now, but.” He shrugs. “Apocalypse.”

Jason just stares at him, Tim's dragon stretching out its neck to touch noses with Teekl, and really, Dick, it's not _that_ funny.

“Yeah,” he says. “Worse than a traffic jam.”

Tim smiles faintly, his amusement echoed by Teekl's purr and Jesus, what is Jason's life now?

Still, there's a chance they can fix this whole mess, or at least make it less of a nightmare, and that's got to count for something. Probably.


End file.
